MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II Review

Introduction:

The GTX 460 was once a card held in very high regard for those who needed the most bang for their buck. Even so, it's time the GTX 460 meets its successor, the GTX 560-Ti. At a price of around $259 the GTX 560 should be able to find its way into the hands of many users. Hopefully, it will give these users the perfect amount of performance for its price point.

As with all video cards, there will be more than one flavor of the GTX 560. I'll be looking at MSI's offering, the N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II. This card is a slightly overclocked version of the GTX 570, and features a beefy dual fan cooler. How will the MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II stack up to other GTX 560 releases? Let's find out.

Closer Look:

Next up is the MSI N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II. This bad boy comes in a bluish box with a picture of the card. MSI made it look as though the card was a gun shooting a bullet out of the chamber. The front of the box tells us that the card runs 20° C cooler, uses military class components, and comes with a free copy of 3DMARK 11. Flipping the box over once again shows the picture of the N560GTX-Ti looking like a gun. We are also able to see the card's features and the minimum system requirements.

Opening up the initial packaging reveals a second box that you will need to slide out. This box features a clear cover showing the card in an anti-static bag and the included power cables. Removing the foam box containing the card reveals a compartment featuring the driver CD, the 3DMARK 11 key, the user manual, and a quick users guide.

Taking a look at the card itself shows us the massive dual 8cm fan cooler. This cooler uses a metal alloy, but a "golden" edition of the card is available with an all copper cooler. Flipping the card over reveals its PCB. I would have liked to see a back plate, but with the massive Twin FROZR II cooler one probably won't be missed. Flipping the card to one side reveals its 8mm heat pipes. The opposing side of the card sports an anti-warp edge. This will help prevent the card from bending while sitting in your case.

As far as connectivity goes, the N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II features two dual-link DVI-I connectors, as well as one mini-HDMI 1.4a connector. As for powering the card you'll need to utilize two 6-pin connectors. You'll also be able to pair this bad boy up with another GTX 560 via the card's SLI connector. Last but not least, the N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR utilizes the ever friendly PCIe X16 interface.

Pulling the HSF off of the card reveals a nickel coated copper base. This large base should be able to dissipate a large amount of heat, which makes it easy to believe that the N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II can run 20° C cooler than other cards. Taking a look at the card's PCB we can see its Hi-C capacitors, which use a Tantalum core. We can also see the Super Ferrite Chokes, and the solid aluminum core capacitors.

Taking a closer look at the cooler we can see that all four of the heat pipes are placed behind the copper base. This means that the surface coming into contact with the card's core will be smoother, which will hopefully dissipate more heat. The heat pipes are then spread pretty evenly amongst the HSF's array of fins.

With the cooler fully removed, we can clearly see the 40nm GF110 core. This is an overclocked version of the GTX 560, so the GF110 core has been bumped up to 880MHz. Along with the core's clock increase, MSI bumped the memory clock up to 4200MHz and the shader clock to 1760MHz. To the right of the core we can see one of the N560GTX-Ti Twin FROZR II memory modules. These all total up to the cards 1024mb of GDDR5 memory.

Now that we've seen what this baby is made of, let's put her to the tests!